{"id":570,"date":"2016-05-13T08:35:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T14:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=570"},"modified":"2016-05-13T10:41:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T16:41:02","slug":"the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/143543351\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.498316% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/143543351?et=76rR3R9FTVZ4FlyFvLFi3A&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=UxCUGjw3__xhsDYAnlD83x0LSpM_PXJActSAKANBkaA=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"395\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">The Obama administration was dealt a major blow on Thursday when federal district court judge Rosemary Collyer sided with House Republicans in their lawsuit against Obamacare, ruling that the administration violated the Constitution by circumventing Congress in making certain payments on behalf of the Affordable Care Act.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit argued that the Obama administration didn\u2019t seek the approval of Congress before giving billions of federal dollars to insurance companies to cover losses due to lowering the out-of-pocket expenses for its low-income customers signing up under the exchange. The administration countered, saying this appropriation was written into the same section of the law that allowed tax credits to help enrollees pay for coverage and that it didn\u2019t need separate approval.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, Judge Collyer set them straight:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSuch an appropriation cannot be inferred. None of Secretaries\u2019 extra-textual arguments \u2014 whether based on economics, \u201cunintended\u201d results, or legislative history \u2014 is persuasive. The Court will enter judgment in favor of the House of Representatives and enjoin the use of unappropriated monies to fund reimbursements due to insurers under Section 1402.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The judge then spelled it out in the clearest terms possible:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAuthorization and appropriation by Congress are non-negotiable prerequisites to government spending.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This system of checks and balances is something the Obama administration has had a tough time submitting to and White House press secretary Josh Earnest\u2019s reaction to the lawsuit confirms it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThis suit represents the first time in our nation\u2019s history that Congress has been permitted to sue the executive branch over a disagreement about how to interpret a statute.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Weak. You can\u2019t suddenly interpret the Constitution differently when its convenient for your case. President Obama has proven time and time again he\u2019s not interested in following the law of the land and to the last day of his presidency, he intends to push his will on the American people. And the White House is confident Obama\u2019s legacy will endure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not the first time that we\u2019ve seen opponents of the Affordable Care Act go through the motions to try to win this political fight in the court system,\u201d Earnest said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been losing this fight for six years, and they\u2019ll lose it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though this is a great day for lovers of the Constitution, the battle is far from over. The administration will appeal the ruling <span class=\"s1\"> to the DC Circuit, who will likely overturn the lower court. This may make its way to the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To add more drama to the proceedings, Obama\u2019s Supreme Court nominee,\u00a0Merrick Garland, is the chief judge of the DC circuit of appeals\u2026 \u00a0which means, this could get interesting indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>H\/T <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/healthcare\/279695-judge-rules-for-house-gop-in-obamacare-suit\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Hill<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Join the only movement that can stop government overreach. Click the button below to support a Convention of States team in your state.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cosaction.com\/fb_petition\/?recruiter_id=1822493\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-77\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/conventionofstates\/files\/2016\/03\/button-sign-petition-e1458102319281.png\" alt=\"button-sign-petition\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-13T14:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-13T16:41:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/653\/2016\/05\/Screen-Shot-2016-05-12-at-10.34.15-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"374\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Meckler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/\",\"name\":\"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-13T14:35:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-13T16:41:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421\"},\"description\":\"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/\",\"name\":\"Mark Meckler\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421\",\"name\":\"Mark Meckler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Meckler\"},\"description\":\"Mark is one of the nation\u2019s most effective grassroots activists. After he co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, he founded Citizens for Self-Governance to revolutionize American government. Founded in February 2012, this grassroots initiative expands and directs the ever-growing, bipartisan self-governance movement. Mark appears regularly on wide variety of television outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/author\/mmeckler\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law","description":"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law","og_description":"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/","og_site_name":"Mark Meckler","article_published_time":"2016-05-13T14:35:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-05-13T16:41:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":590,"height":374,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/653\/2016\/05\/Screen-Shot-2016-05-12-at-10.34.15-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Mark Meckler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Meckler","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/","name":"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-13T14:35:40+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-13T16:41:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421"},"description":"No, Mr. President, you are not above the law!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/05\/the-obama-administration-once-again-reminded-it-has-to-obey-the-law\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Obama administration reminded (once again) it has to obey the law"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/","name":"Mark Meckler","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/e95fc54d2a84068750f5d9a181cd2421","name":"Mark Meckler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf71f8e44cbfd7951a4eb0173d2a8f27?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Mark Meckler"},"description":"Mark is one of the nation\u2019s most effective grassroots activists. After he co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, he founded Citizens for Self-Governance to revolutionize American government. Founded in February 2012, this grassroots initiative expands and directs the ever-growing, bipartisan self-governance movement. Mark appears regularly on wide variety of television outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/author\/mmeckler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}